There is a hard truth about business that I need to share with you. I’ve mentioned this before on The $100 MBA Show as well as on this blog, but not as bluntly as I am about to express to you right now. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Hard work is not enough. It’s not. You can work 25 hours a day and still find little success in business. It’s a sad truth in many ways because all our lives we are told the contrary. We are told things like “Work hard and you can achieve anything.” “Success is yours if you work hard for it.” The thing is, we hardly hear this being said by those who actually achieve success.
Hard work is a given. You have to work hard. But it’s not the only thing you need to do. Business is about creating something of value but it’s also about building strong relationships with those around you. Hard work gets you to the table but you have to form relationships to take you and your business to the next level. Let me give you a few examples:
- All the guest teachers we secured on The $100 MBA Show were all people we built a relationship with prior to show. These guest teacher episodes helped us become an iTunes Best of 2014 podcast.
- We secured over $40,000 worth of consulting work in 2014 based on relationships built at conferences and events we attended.
- We’ve been invited to attend and speak at 4 major events in 2015 because the host of the event got to know us over 2014 and thought we would be of value to the event.
- We’re releasing a new podcast next month and we’ll be able to call upon at least 50 good friends we made this past year with reasonably sized audiences that will be willing to spread the word come launch day.
There are a few more I can list but I want to get into the meat of this post. Relationships are critical to the success of your business. Just like customers only do business with those they trust, other business people only get involved with those they trust. And the best way to build solid relationships is in person, at an event that cultivates opportunities get to know others on a personal level.
I wrote this post because there are so many conferences out there and I know it’s not always easy to choose which ones you should go to. And if you read this blog, there is a good chance we share the same taste and you’ll love these options.
Plain and simple, you should strongly consider attending these 5 events in 2015. Nicole and I plan on being at each these events and we hope to see you there.
February 19-21, 2015
Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Why Attend?
Heroic Public Speaking Live is the public speaking event of the year. Hosted by master public speaking coaches, Michael Port and Amy Mead, this event promises to change the way you think and feel about being on stage. Michael and Amy have coached both Nicole and I in an immersion program back in September. I personally can attest to their incredible ability to transform you as a speaker. Knowing this alone has me excited for this event. If you have a business, then you are in the business of communication. The better you can communicate, the better you can serve your audience.
Why You Really Should Attend?
You’ll be meeting a lot of new people at this event. People from all walks of life and business. People looking to take their careers to the next level by refining their public communications skills. People that are…well frankly…my kind of people. People that want to communicate their ideas the best way they can. I admire that, don’t you?
This is also the first Heroic Public Speaking Live. Why is that noteworthy? Any avid conference goer will tell you that the first time an event is held, it’s particularly special. You’re part of a special group that was there first. It’s intimate. You get a lot more contact time with the speakers and there is a good chance you’ll make a ton of friends for life. So it’s best you pounce on the opportunity.
April 23-25, 2015
San Diego, California
Why Attend
The best way to describe The Instigator Experience is to describe it as indescribable. It’s an event like no other. The Instigator Experience is about fully engaging attendees with the content of the conference and providing them with not only the motivation to move forward, but an action plan as well. This year’s event theme is Igniting a Movement. Your movement. With your community, your audience, your business.
Why You Really Should Attend
The level of planning and production that is being put into this event is unmatched. How do I know this? A few months ago I had a long dinner with friend and host of the event, Srinivas Rao (also known as Srini). He shared some of the things he has planned for this year’s event and let’s just say, it’s going to be epic. Srini approached me to work on this event with him as an educational designer. I, of course, couldn’t say no given what knew about this event. I also will be giving a short presentation I’ve been working on for months that’s perfect for this event.
The intent is to deliver an experience that is bigger than ourselves and the speakers. An experience that will profoundly change the way you approach your work and those around you. Last year’s experience was life changing for many of the attendees and they still are raving about it a year later.
This event is always an intimate group. Srini wants to make sure the speaker-to-attendee ratio is as low as possible to ensure as much engagement as possible. With that said, they are only taking 60 people. It’s application based so if you want a spot, I would highly encourage you to apply on their website ASAP. And because they’re so committed to getting the right people in the room, the’ve setup a payment plan option as well.
July 9-13, 2015
Portland, Oregon
Why Attend
If there is one conference I have heard more about than any other, it’s World Domination Summit. WDS is an annual conference started by Chris Guillebeau and is all about bringing together artists, business builders and world changes to the city of Portland for a 3-day experience (but it looks like this year it’s a 5-day experience). Tickets for this conference get sold out QUICK! Even though this event is in July, the first round of tickets have already sold out. Luckily there is another wave of tickets being released, so make sure you are on the waiting list. This event has completely sold out four years in a row.
Why You Really Should Attend
Full Disclosure: We have never been to World Domination Summit. We planned to go last year but had a scheduling conflict and couldn’t make it. We plan on not missing it this year for one main reason: It’s flat-out a great event to meet interesting people. This is what my close entrepreneur friends all say. If you are dying to feel connected with other like-minded people trying to build their thing, then WDS is a cannot miss event.
Chris and the WDS team do a great job with organizing a great experience. The presentations are often profound and entertaining. There isn’t much info about this year’s event on the site right now but if you take a look at the event in previous years on the site, you can tell this is a very unique experience. At this point, WDS sells out its tickets on their reputation alone.
July 31-Aug 2, 2015
Fort Worth, Texas
Why Attend
Let me start by saying even if you don’t have a podcast or you’re not really into listening to them (Why? They’re free and downright awesome!), you’ll love this event. We went to the inaugural Podcast Movement last August and simply put, it was a blast! Podcast Movement is all about getting your message, your craft, your art, out into the world using podcasts but it’s also a fun weekend with some great minds. It’s also organized by some genuinely good people.
I’ve gotten to know two of the founders of PM, Jared Easley and Dan Franks, and they are both very generous by nature and easy to approach. Some founders of an event this large wouldn’t give you the time of day, but these two, no matter how busy they are, make sure they are available to their attendees. They really have a great attitude of service with their both their speakers and guests.
Why You Really Should Attend
Earlier I mentioned that you should attend this event even if you are not into podcasts. With that said, you really should get into podcasts. Podcasts are changing audio content or “radio” in a huge way. Many new cars in 2015 and most in 2016, will roll out of the lot with Apple’s new entertainment dashboard CarPlay. At the forefront of CarPlay is, you guessed it, iTunes- where most popular podcasts live. This means podcast will effectively replace talk radio. That means if you have a podcast, you will have access to over 200 million car owners in the US alone. So with this in mind, it might be a good time to start thinking about starting a podcast…
…and a great place to learn from the best podcasters is Podcast Movement. Even if you are still not interested in starting a podcast, podcasters are great communicators and can teach you a thing or two about how to put a production, of any kind, together.
Plus Dan and Jared have a few surprises in store this year. Last year they did a great job organizing social get-togethers as a part of the event and they plan to out-do themselves this year. Tickets go on sale February 2, 2015.
October 2015
San Diego, California
Why Attend
Nothing has proven to convert better -from a visitor to your website to happy customer- than webinars. Period. Webinar Ninja Live is the first national event dedicated to the art of communication, presentation and sales using webinars. For those who are new to webinars, webinars are web-based presentations, workshops or seminars that are transmitted over the web using video conferencing software. And webinars are HOT right now because they’ve taken video marketing to the next level given they are the next best thing to speaking to your audience in person. We love webinars and If you haven’t guess it already, we’re very excited about this event because this one is our baby.
Nicole and I have been using and studying webinars for some time. This past year we wrote two books on the subject and have released a webinar platform called Webinar Ninja. After months of beta testing and listening to our users, the revamped version of the software is due to release next month. We are pretty sure it’s going to change the webinar game forever. We’ve learned a lot about webinars throughout our experiences and the experiences of our users that used our training and software. As trained educators for over 14 years, we also found that great teaching and presenting is the most powerful tool any online business can use to generate more sales. Webinars are the best tool out there to make it happen.
Why You Really Should Attend
This is going to be an event that is a first of its kind. Masters of webinars will be sharing their best techniques and strategies that have helped them and their business succeed. If you been wanting to get into webinars but are not really sure how best to use them, then this conference is a must attend.
Webinars can change your business in a drastic way. We’ve seen our business triple in revenue because of them. We learned what works and what doesn’t. We know how to make a great impression, how to structure your webinar and have attendees answer your calls to action with no hesitation whatsoever. You need to be doing webinars and you need to be doing them right.
Webinar Ninja Live will also make sure you go home with a plan of action. Every attendee will have their own personal webinar strategic plan. You’ll know how to set up webinars, how to promote them, know exactly what to say and do on your webinars and how to make them a part of your sales strategy to make more revenue. We are finalizing the venue at the moment and tickets go on sale March 9, 2015 but you can receive a discount code right now here. This is going to be a lot of fun. We have a lot of surprise guests and goodies planned for you!
Final Words
One thing I didn’t mention is conferences are a great way to share what you are doing with others. It’s a fantastic opportunity to perfect how you communicate what you do with others and connect with potential audience members, customers or even collaborators.
They are also just down right fun. Often, you get to visit a new city with new people that you can connect with. It’s my kind of weekend. I hope to see you at one, or all of the conference above in 2015!
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